A proposition for devices and spatial Nautilus.

[Julien Olivier <julo altern org>]

Here is a proposition that _might_ please everyone without being too
different from the current situation:

- On the desktop, we should have:
     * A .desktop file pointing to ~/ but renamed "Personal Files"
     * A .desktop file pointing to computer:///, named "Computer, where
you can see all your devices
     * A .desktop file point to trash:///, named "Wastebasket".

- Those 3 .desktop files would of course be internationalized.

- Newly mounted devices don't appear on the desktop. But the
notification area displays an icon representing the media mounted. If
you click on this icon, it opens the mount point in a new Nautilus
window. FIXME: Is the notification icon expected to disappear after a
while ?

- If you open "Personal Files" in spatial Nautilus, the Desktop folder
is hidden (to avoid the loop and to avoid having to find a solution
about how to open the Desktop folder in spatial mode)

- ~/ contains several folders by default: Documents, Pictures, Movies,
Music etc...

- Applications are encouraged to default to the folder that suits them
best. For example, GIMP and gthumb would default to "~/Pictures" while
Rhythmbox would default to "~/Music".

- The FOSD defaults to ~/Desktop and, thus, shows "Personal Files",
"Computer" and all the user files/folders on the desktops (if any) but
doesn't show launchers (except URLs) and the trash.

The advantages of this solution are: 

- ~/ stays the root for the user's documents (which is the UNIX way of
doing things)

- The desktop is the root to all devices, documents etc...

- The "Home" folder being renamed "Personal Files", it's easier for the
user to understand that it's a documents folder. I think very few people
understand the "Home" metaphor, but I might be wrong.

- The desktop isn't cluttered by the system as mounted devices don't
appear on it and automatically-generated folders are in the Home folder.
So that lets the responsability of clutter to the user :)

Another important point, already discussed before in a few threads:

- If you right-click on the desktop or inside a Nautilus window or on a
folder icon, you can see a "browser menu" showing the visible
folders/VFS link available from the base dir. For example, if you
right-click on the desktop, you have a menu entry in the context menu
named "Go" or "Browse" containing "Personal Files" and "Computer" by
default. It's a menu, so if you click or enter the "Personal Files"
sub-menu, you see "Open this folder", "Paste here", a separator,
"Music", "Pictures", "Videos" etc... Another example: if you right-click
on the "Music" folder in ~/, you'll see "Browse", containing the list of
your albums with the "Open this folder" and "Paste here" actions
available for each one and their sub-folders.

- The "Open new window" option would then be removed from the desktop's
context menu (being replaced by this browser menu).

- This "browser" menu could even be used for the copy/move/link action.
For example, if you right-click on a file, you should have "Copy to ->",
"Move to ->", "Link to ->" instead of the simple "Copy", "Move" and
"Link" actions that don't make much sense for files (IMHO).

I think those browsing facilities are very much needed in the spatial
Nautilus because it avoids the difficulties of open a very nested folder
(opening loads of windows on the way to the wanted file/folder).

Note: I don't pretend to know better than everyone what's the best
solution. I just described here what _I_ think would suit me the most.
Feel free to say what you dislike, what isn't technically possible, what
is stupid etc...

--
Julien Olivier